Investigating practising teachers’ willingness to teach genetics with the use of ICT

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate practising teachers’ willingness to teach the topic of genetics with the use of ICT. I wanted to find out if teachers consider themselves sufficiently prepared to use ICT in the classroom. The motivation for investigating practising teachers’ willingness to teach the topic of genetics with the use of ICT was to determine whether teachers appreciate the value of ICT and its relevance in the classroom. If teachers do not see the value and relevance of ICT in education, hopefully, this study will help the Department of Education in facilitating a better alignment between research and practice and provide training that will adequately train and prepare teachers for the use of ICT. The Department of Education supports the use of ICT in classrooms and this is also part of the current international drive for education. Data was collected through interviews and classroom observations. There were four participant teachers within the age range of 25- 50 years category; two participants were female and the other two were males. Participants had to teach grade 12 Life Sciences as a subject for them to be part of this study. Findings show that teachers in my study, both males and females, were willing to teach the topic of genetics with the use of ICT. However, only one teacher considered himself sufficiently prepared to teach with ICT. The study showed that although the other three teachers valued and appreciated ICT in the classroom, they still needed further training on how to incorporate ICT in their lessons. Findings also showed that teachers faced several challenges when using ICT. Issues such as load shedding and the internet either being slow or expensive are some of the cited challenges. The study recommends that during in-service workshops, teachers need to be provided with proper and adequate information about the function, usage and benefits of ICT. In addition, there is a need for the Department of Education to start investing and providing schools with backup generators so that lessons are not disturbed due to load shedding. Finally, free data or the internet needs to be made available and accessible so that teachers and learners may be able to view pre-recorded video lessons and access learning materials such as past question papers from various reputable websites.